Notices of claim and stopping people disposing of property

Notices of Claim

The law allows a partner with a claim or interest in land to register a notice against the land title to prevent anyone else buying or selling the land.

This can affect rights to the land that creditors claim, particularly if their interest is unregistered or if they register their interest after the notice of claim is lodged.

We think notices of claim work well. We discuss this further in our more detailed Issues Paper (Part K).

Where a person disposes of property

The law gives the court powers to prevent a person from selling or transferring ownership in property where the purpose is to remove the property from one partner’s reach. Sometimes, if the property has already been sold or transferred the court can order the property to be returned or compensation to be paid.

In most cases these powers will not affect creditors. A creditor’s primary motive is rarely to take away a partner’s legal rights – they are just trying to get their money back.

For more information:

Our Study Paper, and Issues Paper provide a more comprehensive look at the work we are doing. They also ask more detailed and technical questions as part of our public consultation. We have condensed the information on this website into a Consultation Paper.

Contact us

You can contact the Law Commission by emailing pra@lawcom.govt.nz or calling our office at 04 473 3453.